Diane Abbott, a shadow health minister, will tonight warn that the "pornification" of culture is causing children to be "hypersexualised" at an early age.

At a meeting of the Fabian Women's Network, she will say parents are struggling to cope with the tide of sexual images available on social networking websites and the wider internet.

"For so long, it's been argued that overt, public displays of sexuality are an enlightened liberation," she will say.

"But I believe that for many, the pressure of conforming to hypersexualisation and its pitfalls is a prison. And the permanence of social media and technology can be a life sentence.

Ms Abbott will call for tougher internet controls to stop children getting access to pornographic images. She will say children should not be under pressure to engage in "sexting", where they send explicitly sexual images of themselves to others.

"I want to highlight what I believe is the rise of a secret garden, striptease culture in British schools and society, which has been put beyond the control of British families by fast-developing technology, and an increasingly pornified British culture," she will say.

"There's something wrong with a society as a whole when children say they have no one to turn to for advice because their parents - outwitted by technology, and struggling to juggle work and home life - don't really know what's going on.

"There's something wrong with a society when many young girls of all classes are pressurised into exposing themselves online, and are then humiliated.

"There's something wrong with a society that normalises children of every background 'sexting' from their bedrooms."

Claire Perry, a Tory MP, has been campaigning for tougher internet controls on pornography and age verification of internet users. The Prime Minister has agreed to some stricter rules for households with children but stopped short of an automatic ban on pornography unless the user opts in.

It comes after new resesarch from Australia found the average age at which children first watch pornography is just 11

Australian researchers Maree Crabbe and David Corlett said children were turning to adult films because schools were not handling the positive aspects of sex.

The research found 88 per cent of scenes in pornographic films showed an element of physical aggression, with most directed at the female participant.

Pupils also appeared to believe that sexual practices shown in porn were normal features of sexual relationships.

The researchers said pupils should be taught how to evaluate porn in sex education lessons.

Last week, a separate survey found more young people were having sex under the age of consent. Among 16 to 24-year-old women, more than a quarter had lost their virginity under the age of 16.